NOBODY’S PERFECT
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Its aim being to “promote awareness of the general topic of disability,” the Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital and Care Network’s production of NoBODY’S Perfect, an original revue by Amy J. Serpe, is less a theatrical event than an experiment in communication. With the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), tougher accessibility requirements for even small businesses are presenting the disabled with greater opportunities, both as employees and as consumers. But one barrier the ADA can do little about is the general public’s perception of the disabled. NoBODY’S Perfect is Serpe’s attempt to expand the awareness of issues the disabled face daily.
Performed in Second City’s E.T.C. space, and adopting that theater’s revue format (minus the improvisation), this production achieves its end, though only in a general way. Serpe never delves too deeply into the lives or frustrations of the disabled portrayed. And by keeping things light and sticking to the revue format, she winds up giving us only a primer for those who are able-bodied (AB) but haven’t the imagination or sensitivity to view a disabled person as an individual. Their lack of consideration becomes the major issue of the production, which presents a variety of these able-bodied morons (many of them well-meaning, all of them played by Tim O’Malley). This seems a touch condescending at first, but these characters all draw such chuckles of recognition from the disabled in the audience that it soon becomes evident the condescension may be justified. Even in the age of ADA people still come unglued when they have to deal with someone in a wheelchair.
